Subtraction By Addition

Sacramento has cornered the market. The NBA is littered with players who look good, but actually kill teams. The two names at the top of that list? DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay. Sacramento drafted one (then gave him a max contract), then went out and traded for the other. It's only a matter of time until Cousins throws a punch at Gay for hogging the ball, there are only so many possessions to waste, after all.

To be fair, Cousins does really seem to have turned a corner on the offensive end. He's got above-average efficiency with a ridiculous 33.6% usage rate. He's also anchoring (in a good way), the #12 offense in the league (at least they're #12 with 10 games of Rudy Gay damage, it will probably wind up being much worse). Cousins' assist-to-turnover ratio isn't a whole lot worse than Evan Turner's, an admittedly low bar. Still, he deserves his due on the offensive end.

Sacramento's most dangerous weapon, and the guy most likely to be marginalized by Gay's arrival, is Isaiah Thomas. Thomas is ridiculously efficient, and shooting a deadly 42.5% from deep. Maybe he'll be able to maintain his 26.2% usage rate, but I doubt it. Here's a fun stat, Gay + Cousins + Thomas = 90.2% usage rate. How would you like to be the other two guys on the floor? Recipe for disaster, to say the least.

With Gay in the fold, the Kings are a middling 4-6. I hope they can keep that winning percentage up, one less team to race to the bottom.

Sacto is coming off a win in Houston on New Year's Eve. They also beat the Heat last Friday, but it was an overtime win, so that doesn't count. Here's the minute count for important Sixers last night: MCW (34:30), Thad (40:04), Hawes (31:41) ... and other Sixers: Turner (40:21), Hollis (17:00, really?), Brandon Davies (7:56).

The tip is at 10pm. If I'm up, I'll be watching, but who knows if I'll be up (or stuck on the road in a foot of snow somewhere). Join me for three in a row!